It seems strange and absurd in our time that some adults want to protect children from seeing naked nature. In a world where the Internet rules almost all spheres of modern life, and immodest pictures can be seen without any prohibitions or passwords, all you have to do is log on to the Internet… And suddenly such a scandal…
The claims of a certain citizen from St. Petersburg to the great master of the Renaissance remained unanswered: it was decided not to dress the marble sculpture of David. The angry message of the St. Petersburg resident reached the local authorities.
How could this man without pants be placed in the center of St. Petersburg, near a school and a church? …This giant… is disfiguring children's souls!
— with these words, the indignant resident of northern Palmyra called for help from the children's ombudsman.
The situation with clothing for the Renaissance sculpture could be called funny, if it weren't so sad. Hypocrisy, elevated to a cult, is no more chaste and no cleaner than tabloid magazines with naked beauties on the covers. The copy of the sculpture of the Jewish king by Michelangelo Buonarroti was left without clothes. As the organizers of the action stated, the townspeople spoke out in favor of a naked David.
Hallelujah! The sculpture of the Old Testament king, first shown in Florence on September 8, 1504, was saved by social media users. The nude “David” looks down from the heights of centuries at the public at his feet. The young king is ready to fight a superior enemy. His gaze is calm: how could he know that centuries later, deep darkness will cover the nations and there will be those who will see in the naked marble body pictures that defile their gaze.
With his brows furrowed menacingly, “David” awaits his meeting with the enemy. He has no idea that by modern standards, a hero of the third millennium should be dressed in clothes, so as not to embarrass the chaste gaze of young teenagers with his nakedness. Well, at the very least, he should attach a fig leaf to his groin.
Florence. 1501. A huge block of marble brought from the Carrara mines was intended for a sculpture that the Florence city council commissioned the young sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti to create. However, when the work was nearing completion, a dispute arose over where to place the statue. Most of the members of the “commission” demanded that “David” be installed in the square near the city council, and only a few of the artists believed that the ancient king's place was near the cathedral. In the end, the general civic message outweighed the religious significance.
St. Petersburg, August 2016. Internet users have voted for a naked King David. They decided not to dress the plastic copy installed near the Lutheran Church on Kirochnaya Street in St. Petersburg. The announced vote ended with the verdict: “Leave everything as is.” The prize for second place – invitations for six people to the exhibition – became the reward for the author of the idea “David in a T-shirt.” 270 people voted for this proposal.
